Category Archives: Cislunar Space Development

Tuesday / 9 Aug 2022

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KARI Prepares to Conduct Science Operations from Moon Orbit with KPLO, Considering Lunar Outpost

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter is headed to 100-km polar orbit around Moon, powered by four 30-N Orbit Maneuver Thrusters on ~ 19-week journey; 6 science instruments include Gamma Ray Spectrometer to monitor y-ray emissions during trip / from lunar orbit within 10 keV to 10 MeV range; NASA ShadowCam based on LRO LROC with 800x sensitivity to map PSRs; Ministry of Science official Kwon Hyun-joon tells NYT Moon has “potential to act as a base for further deep space exploration”; 2nd stage of Korean Lunar Exploration Program to feature lunar orbiter / lander / rover launched from S Korea NLT 2030

Credits: KARI, SpaceX, Yonhap

Wednesday / 27 July 2022

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Galaxy Forum Southeast Asia (GFSEA), Singapore Considers Lunar Commercial Communications, Pan Asia Astro Cooperation

GFSEA engaging regional astronomical / astronautical space leaders in dialogue at iconic ArtScience Museum 27 July on 3 themes: Considerations for Southeast Asia Space Agency (SEASA), Asia Astronomy Organization (AAO) modeled on European Southern Observatories, and Lunar Commercial Communications (LCC) – expanding commercial communications by 1,240x; Moderated by Singapore Space and Technology Limited President Jon Hung, LCC panel includes International Lunar Observatory Association Hawaii Director Steve Durst, Qosmosys CEO Francois Dubrulle, Transcelestial Technologies Engineer Jan Smisek; ILOA ILO-X precursor NET 22 Dec 2022, ILO-1 flagship NET 2024 missions for astronomy, observations and communications from the Moon

Credits: ILOA, NASA, CSYS, Twitter, Linkedin

Tuesday / 12 July 2022

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Space Habitat, Biome and Transport System Envisioned by Japan Academic / Industry Partnership

Kyoto University Human Spaceology Center teaming with Kajima Corporation to realize sustainable human occupancy of Moon, Mars, and interplanetary space; Comprehensive 3-part proposal includes 396-m Luna Glass, generating 1g artificial gravity via 20-second rotations, Nature biome extracted from global ecosystem, harnessing “natural capital”, and interplanetary Hexatrack transit which would ferry people to / from LEO station, cislunar Gateway, Mars moon Phobos and have modular capsule design for surface transport, hybrid electromagnetic railgun / chemical propulsion; Researchers estimate a precursor system could be constructed within 50 years, full build-out NET 22nd Century

Credits: Kyoto University / Kajima Corporation
 

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 17-20 June 2022

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CAPSTONE, KPLO Danuri and Artemis 1 Teams Working Towards Summer 2022 Moon Orbit

NASA Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment now striving for 25 June launch from LC-1 on Māhia NZ via Rocket Lab Electron / Photon; KARI lunar orbiter Danuri ‘fully prepared’ for 2 August launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 from KSC – South Korea will be 8th nation with Moon probe; Artemis 1, fully stacked with SLS and Orion, to begin WDR countdown 18 June, NASA mission availability schedule indicates 148 possible launch opportunities from 23 August 2022 – 1 July 2023

Credits: NASA, KARI, Rocket Lab

Friday / 10 June 2022

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NASA Conducting Extensive Testing of Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) for Lunar Gateway

Power and Propulsion Element of Lunar Gateway under development by Maxar to utilize 6 and 12kW Hall-effect ion thruster systems built by Busek and Aerojet Rocketdyne with Moog xenon propellant feeder and Maxar power processing unit; Current testing regimen comes after initial testing phase finds both systems ‘capable of performing across the full mission power range’; SEP to keep Gateway on efficient NRHO during 15-year mission after Q4 2024 launch via SpaceX Falcon Heavy; Tiangong space station is only human-rated ion-powered spacecraft

Credits: NASA, Maxar, Aerojet Rocketdyne

Tuesday / 7 June 2022

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Laser Technology for Earth-Moon Communication Being Developed by Space Agencies / Private Sector

TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD), aboard PDT-3 cubesat (built / operated by Terran Orbital) aims to deliver information files from LEO at 200Gbps (USA D/L speeds average ~120Mbps); Italian Space Agency / NASA partnering on LuGRE (2023) to interface with GNSS signals from Moon via Firefly lander under CLPS; both projects utilize laser terminals and are overseen by NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN); Sony Space Communications also working on miniaturized laser comms derived from Small Optical Link for International Space Station installed on Kibo module

Credits: ESA, NASA

Friday / 6 May 2022

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Canada Celebrates Space / Moon with AstroFest in Montreal While Parliament Advances Cislunar Law

Astronaut David Saint-Jacques to speak on future of Canada Moon exploration activities as first Artemis program partner at Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, part of Space For Life Museum in Montreal 7 May; Canada to contribute Canadarm3 to Lunar Gateway, send Astronaut on Artemis 2 Moon orbit mission NET 2024; Lawmakers in Ottawa include language extending Canada legal jurisdiction to / from Gateway and lunar surface for both Canada citizenry and those of ‘Partner States’ in House of Commons bill

Credits: CSA-ASC, Ecosystem, Space For Life

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 22-25 April 2022

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2022 Moon Missions Preview: CAPSTONE Could Lead Way on 3 May

Launch window opening 3 May for CAPSTONE orbiter still on schedule; Artemis-1 SLS / Orion / 10 CubeSat launch now likely July-August; Intuitive Machines Nova-C cradle (built by Caldwell Group) to transport lunar lander to KSC arrives in Houston for testing / launch windows for IM-1 & IM-2 announced ‘soon’; Astrobotic Peregrine flight model to have solar panels, fuel tanks, engines installed – launch late 2022; Luna-25 ‘later this year’; Japan ispace lander end of 2022 via SpaceX, SLIM pushed to March 2023; Korea Pathfinder 1 August Launch; ISRO Somanath puts doubt on Chandrayaan-3 launch in 2022

Credits: Advanced Space / Jason Johnson, IM, Astrobotic, ispace, ISRO

Friday / 25 February 2022

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Phase 2 of ‘Watts on the Moon’ Opens 3-Segment, 30-Month, US$4.5M Challenge to Enable Lunar Surface Power Transmission & Energy Storage

Running on HeroX crowdsourcing platform, NASA Centennial Challenges calls for USA team proposals for energy infrastructure concepts supporting long-term Moon operations; Open 23 Feb 2022 with competition end scheduled 11 Sep 2024, 285 teams with 3.3K innovators registered so far; Phase 1 winners (21 May 2021, totaling 500K) were Astrobotic, Astrolight, KC Space Pirates, Michigan Tech University, UC Santa Barbara, Skycorp, Team FuelPod; International missions planned near Boguslawsky, Nobile, Shackleton Rim, Malapert Mountain, Haworth Crater, Simpelius N to help determine solar illumination & resources for crew landing projected 2025 / Artemis 3

Credits: NASA, HeroX

Friday / 18 February 2022

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Precision Technology for Landing Within Shadowed Regions of Moon Surface Sought by NASA

Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge No. 1 offers ≤US$650,000/ea for 3 proposals on lunar landing sensing systems designed to function absent light from ≥250m altitude – a common condition especially in Moon polar regions rich in volatiles such as hydrogen, oxygen, water termed Permanently Shadowed Regions, cold traps on crater floors that are seldom / never illuminated; Hardware such as optical, radar and lidar sensors coupled with machine learning software are likely approaches to challenge; Submissions accepted until 19 May 17:00 PDT

Credits: NASA, Masten, Astrobotic